


A lake that stayed the same

by persephx



Series: glimbow week 2020 [1]
Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: F/M, First Meeting, Glimbow Centric, POV Glimmer (She-Ra), Post-Series, Pre-Relationship, Pre-Series, and also, glimbow's kid, i really do not know how to tag this
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-03
Updated: 2020-09-03
Packaged: 2021-03-06 15:02:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,157
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26270818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/persephx/pseuds/persephx
Summary: Glimmer remembers the time when she met Bow.-fic for the prompt of childhood/memories of the 2020 glimbow week :)
Relationships: Bow/Glimmer (She-Ra)
Series: glimbow week 2020 [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1909954
Kudos: 20
Collections: Glimbow Week 2020





	A lake that stayed the same

Glimmer can’t hold back a laugh when she sees Bow stumbling and falling into the lake. There’s something that pulls from the back of her mind, but she doesn’t realize what it is until she sees Bow’s soaked head resurface. It’s hilarious, he has a leaf stuck in the side of his head and a small branch in his hair. He looks as grumpy as one would expect. It is the exact same expression he had one they had met. The whole situation is simply too similar not to be reminded of that day.

It had been a slow day in the castle. That didn’t mean that the day had been much different from the rest of the days during that time, but thirteen-year-old Glimmer had been more bored than usual. She had whined about it to her mother until Queen Angella, fed up, had sent her to have a walk through the gardens to keep her mind occupied while she worked on something important. There was a guard stalking her from a distance, as usual, but they had given her enough space that she felt like she was alone. Living like she did, always being supervised and followed around, it felt like a favor, not matter how bored she was. She also knew that if she started a conversation with Helion, they would talk to her, but if she wanted to talk with adults, she would have gone to the kitchens to bother Kial.

The gardens had once been her favorite place. Her father and her used to spend hours there, playing and learning… After he had disappeared, she hadn’t wanted to spend a lot of time there, and her mother hadn’t tried too hard to convince her to do so. It had felt a little big wrong to enjoy time there when her father was dead. Thinking back on it, Glimmer only feels guiltier. Her father hadn’t been dead, he had been stranded on Beast Island, surrounded by danger.

The royal gardens were beautiful, like the rest of Bright Moon. They were situated behind the castle, next to the waterfall, and there was a small lake right in the middle where colorful fish swam calmly. Glimmer hadn’t thought much about it back then, but she now knows that the fish that live there have similar powers to her, they can move freely in those waters or teleport to other lakes anywhere in Etheria. Most of the fish make the conscious election of staying in the lake in the gardens, which only makes it more special. Some, she has been told, also favor the underground lakes in the castle’s caverns, she hasn’t seen them yet, but she can imagine how magical that much be.

She was walking slowly, not really focusing on anything, when, from the corner of her eye, she saw someone that she didn’t recognize.

It was a boy, her age, more or less. He was looking around like he was expecting anyone to appear and kick him out. She could imagine that, if Glimmer didn’t recognize him, that was exactly what needed to happen. He didn’t look menacing, though. Now that she could look at him closely, he looked more lost than anything else. She made the snap decision of teleporting to his side.

“Who are you?” she asked when she appeared by his side.

He was so startled that he jumped and ever let out a shrill yelp. He turned to look at her with wide eyes and a terrified expression. “Who are you?” he demanded, still looking spooked.

Glimmer held back her smile and raised her eyebrows. “I asked you first.”

He cleared his throat and tried to stand taller. He wasn’t very tall, just a couple of inches taller than her —which wasn’t much, considering she was on the short side herself— so doing that didn’t have the effect that he had probably hoped for. “My name is Bow.”

“Your name is Bow?” she asked, now noticing the bow in his back. It was rudimentary, almost like he had made it himself.

He nodded, his expression serious —later, when she had come to known him, Glimmer had noted how little he behaved like that, but she didn’t know better then. She had also known later how much he didn’t like his name to be mocked. It was very dear to him, very special, because his dads had named him Bow after the first ones’ bow they’d found in one of their trips, right before they had started dating, he had told her.

It was weird that his name was Bow and he had an actual bow with him, but she had supposed then that asking about that would be rude, so she held back her questions. It had been a good choice.

“And what are you doing here, Bow? Armed and all.”

He frowned. First, he seemed offended, then he seemed to realize something, and then he frowned deeper. “You haven’t told me who you are!”

Before she could answer, her guard caught up to them. “Princess Glimmer,” they said. Helion’s voice was sharp, and their face was as serious as she had ever seen it. They had their eyes set in Bow, who puffed his chest. That boy was stupid if he thought behaving like that was going to do him any favors, Glimmer had thought in that moment.

“This is Bow,” she told them.

Bow hesitated for a couple of seconds before he nodded and bowed a little bit. The boy was really a mess, Glimmer thought, it was impossible that he’d been at the castle before.

Helion didn’t seem to know what to do with him. They were frowning and alert, but not overly so. Glimmer didn’t know what procedure was when a thirteen-year-old boy sneaked into the castle, and she could guess that Helion wasn’t sure either.

“What is your business here,” the guard demanded.

Bow straightened himself. “I came to speak to the queen.”

At the same time that Helion raised one of their eyebrows, Glimmer snorted. The guard gave the princess a look that made her raise her shoulders in a shrug.

“You will have to leave the bow here.”

The boy seemed confused for a moment, and then he seemed to realize that he was, in fact, carrying a wooden bow. He nodded fast and didn’t hesitate to take it off and drop it in the floor. Once it was on the floor, though, he looked at it as if he didn’t want to leave it there and Glimmer didn’t think twice before grabbing it.

“I’ll keep it for you,” she said. The bow weighted more than she had expected, but not enough for it to be a bother.

He looked at her surprised. “Thank you.”

And so, they started walking towards the castle. It didn’t take long, really, as they were fairly close to the back doors, but it felt like an eternity for Glimmer. She knew they couldn’t risk trusting strangers, and Bow, no matter how innocuous he seemed, was a stranger, so she knew to be cautious about him. However, there weren’t many kids her age in the castle, and it was exciting to have him there, even if she didn’t know why he was there for.

She doesn’t remember much of the meeting with her mother. She does remember the nervousness of meeting someone new, someone so young who had gone to her mother and outright asked to be a part of The Rebellion. She remembers her mother telling her that night that she had liked him. “I like that boy,” she had told her then, and she would repeat so again and again during their friendship. Sometimes, even now, after so many years, Glimmer wonders if her mother new more about their relationship than they did. She wonders if her constant approval of Bow had been an encouragement too.

Queen Angella was not stupid, so, even though she had liked the young archer, she hadn’t admitted him as part of The Rebellion. “You are too young,” she told him. Her smile hadn’t been patronizing, as she was sometimes with Glimmer, but it had a similar motherly tone.

Bow deflated instantly.

“However,” the Queen said, slowly and with a firm voice, “if helping Bright Moon is what you want, you can stay here. And train. One day you will be old enough, and if you still want it, The Rebellion will welcome you.”

Glimmer remembers the excitement. Both in her own body, at the thought of that young boy staying in Bright Moon and in the boy’s face expression.

“Queen Angella…” His voice broke then, and he turned red. “Thank you. I would really like that.”

“If you talk with your family, we can arrange it so they can stay here and be with you while you prepare.”

This is a moment that Glimmer remembers well. Bow’s face had become ashy, almost like he was a ghost. Back then, she had known the answer before she even heard his answer —she had projected her own feelings to him. “His family must have been victims of the Horde’s horrible actions,” she thought, “just like dad. That’s why he wants to be a part of The Rebellion so badly.” And, to her, it made perfect sense.

“Oh! My family—” He had to clear his voice. “They—”

Queen Angella’s train of thought had been similar to her daughter’s, and she had spoken before the boy could finish his sentence. “We will also provide you with a home if your family is not… on the picture.”

Glimmer cringed at her mother’s wording, which had been surprisingly graceless. Bow, though, seemed relieved. Now, Glimmer can guess that his relieve came from not having to _actually_ lie about his family, and not because they were dead, and he didn’t know how to talk about that.

They talked a bit more about the logistics, which is mostly what Glimmer doesn’t remember now. And, in the end, Queen Angella gave Bow her approval, accompanied with a word of advice that was also a covered threat. Glimmer doesn’t remember what it was, but she imagines that it was something like “if you turn out to be a Horde spy and my daughter gets harmed I will personally maim you” in nicer words.

After her threat, the Queen had turned to Glimmer and sweetly asked her to show Bow around. Glimmer, excited because she had mostly mastered her powers and had someone to finally brag to, had nodded instantly. “We’ll go see the gardens first!”

Without a word of warning, she grabbed Bow’s hand and teleported back to the gardens. She hadn’t _quite_ mastered her powers, however, so they both ended up in the middle of the small lake, disrupting the peace of the fish.

Bow had surfaced after her, his hair wet, a scowl in his face and a weed in his cheek. Glimmer had cringed and taken the weed from where it was sticking to and had grimaced at him. In that moment, teen Glimmer had feared she had ruined the one friendship she could have had with someone her age, someone as _interesting_ as Bow seemed. She was sure she had completely ruined her chance, taking into account how put out Bow looked. But then, he burst out laughing.

“I’m sorry!” she rushed out.

He made a move with his hand to show he wasn’t bothered. “If you were so hot, we could have gone to the sea, better than here, no?”

For a moment, Glimmer was unable to find her words. It didn’t last very long. “I _did not_ do this on purpose!”

“Of course you didn’t, Princess Glimmer.”

The teasing tone made her smile excitedly. No one spoke to her in a teasing voice, maybe her mother sometimes, but it had been so long since she had someone other than her speaking to her in a normal way…

“Just Glimmer.”

Bow had smiled at her.

“So. Glimmer. Do you think I can get a change of clothes?”

She snorted so loud that the fish that had been brave enough to get close to them rushed to get away.

Now Glimmer is looking at her husband, drenched in water and looking grumpy, and she can’t help but think about the boy that walked into Bright Moon with just a wooden bow and told the queen that he wanted to join The Rebellion. As she comes back to the present, she can see that Bow is back out from the water looking for Glow in search of revenge, as it had been their kid’s fault that he had ended up in the lake in the first place. With a soft smile, Glimmer walks up to him and kisses him lightly.

“Glow is hiding behind the oak,” she whispers in his ear. He smirks at her and lunges towards the oak, from where Glow runs out shrieking.

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t think it was ever specified when Bow joined The Rebellion/met Glimmer, but, taking his dads into account, it couldn’t have been too early. I went with thirteen because I wasn’t sure what would be too young or too old. Idk. Enjoy. Also, glimbow’s kid’s name is Glow, fight me.
> 
> -
> 
> Follow me on [tumblr!](https://persephx.tumblr.com/)


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